Reading Frankenstein
[thoughts on gender/patriarchy/authority collected over the course of reading Shelley’s Frankestein in 2019]
[following tweets from Feb 20]
So Frankenstein’s sub-title is “The Modern Prometheus,” and while there’s the obvious Victor-as-Prometheus theme, there’s also Victor-as-Io. In Prometheus Bound, Io is cursed to wander on and on, as Zeus pursues her, because he wants to bang her. In Frankenstein, after Justine’s execution, Victor wanders, on and on, pursued metaphorically by his fear of his own sexuality; pursued literally (I assume) by the monster who is the object of his sexual desire. It’s difficult to parse any transgender/lgbt metaphors and symbolism, since our modern conception of those categories are totally different from theirs. But there’s definitely a kind of gender bendy thing in the subtext. On Victor’s travels he talks about feeling the joy of “boyhood,” and links that idea specifically to “maternal Nature.” Like Victor is pining for the time before he had to pretend to be a “man,” with its expectations of binary gender and heterosexuality.
Also, when I was reading Elizabeth’s letter to Victor, she went on and on and on about Justine. Then quickly mentions a couple male friends/family members and is like “ok bye.” Almost as if she were obsessed with Justine. Almost as if they were in love. She speak about Justine the same way Victor speaks about his boyhood chum and probably romantic partner, Henry: at length, in painful detail. Like, we get it.
It’s also just funny that the alchemy Victor is obsessed with, “Greek and Roman” knowledge — considered not just out dated, but vulgar or offensive — is metaphor for Greeks loving gay sex, and Romans being huge horny pervs.
So there’s a line toward the beginning of Frankenstein, chapter 10, describing the images Victor sees on his hike: “The I stained snowy mountaintop, the glittering pinnacle, the pine wood, and ragged bare ravine, the eagle, soaring amidst the clouds.” There’s obvious phallic & yonic symbolism in pinnacle/woods & ravine, but Shelly caps it off with an eagle, which is a symbol that represents Zeus. From the Prometheus Wikipedia page: “The immortal Prometheus was bound to a rock, where each day an eagle, the emblem of Zeus, was sent to feed on his liver, which would then grow back overnight to be eaten again the next day. (In ancient Greece, the liver was often thought to be the seat of human emotions.)”
I don’t actually remember if this detail is elaborated on by Aeschylus. In fact, I don’t remember it in Prometheus Bound. They may have mentioned it. BUT, Shelley would’ve been referencing not just Aeschylus, but Prometheus more broadly. The eagles would be associated with him. But to get to the point: by chapter 10, we have heard over and over about Victor’s emotional/psychological agony, which is often linked to the day night cycle. It’s a very “oh god, what did I do last night?? Did I give in??” vibe. Lots of guilt and repression. So with Victor-as-Prometheus: just as P’s liver (seat of emotions) is destroyed/reborn every day; V’s sexual identity is destroyed/reborn every day as he continually tries to repress his emotions. P’s torture was literal external violence; V’s is emotional violence from society.
Yes, I’m arguing in the same thread that Victor is both Prometheus and Io. Because this book fuckin gets gender as a social construct. Victor contains multitudes and I actually like him way more now that he’s been getting some D. Early on he was pretty insufferable. But it’s so moving, the way Shelley uses metaphor to get across the feeling of constant dread, the unending torture of having to hide your sexual and/or gender identity. The knowledge that Prometheus bore was language/medicine/science. Victor bears carnal homoerotic knowledge.
In the society of Greek mythology, that scientific knowledge was not allowed to be shared. In Georgian English society, that homoerotic/gender/etc knowledge was not allowed to be shared.
This book is like 200 pages of someone screaming “JUST LET ME BE MYSELF FOR CHRISTS SAKE!!!!” And I love it.
[following tweets from March 2]
The novel “Frankenstein” is many things, but fundamentally at its core, it’s a recognition of the privilege and violence that rich white men get to exercise.
Victor is the epitome of the repressed white male who, instead of fighting patriarchy, exploits it for selfish ends. Whether you read him as repressing his homosexual urges, repressing his gender-identity confusion, or simply repressing a desire to live his life as a sexual being (I think there’s a valid — but pretty weak — argument that he’s just a straight guy who can’t process sexual desire). But his privilege is CONSTANT in the novel. From being born rich, to being allowed to study “obscene” texts that fall outside the scientific community’s mainstream, to being allowed to go on a horny romp in Britain before getting married.
Frankenstein’s monster weeps when he hears about the genocide of the Native Americans. Frankenstein’s monster is more humane than any conservative.
Victor gets to do anything he wants, whenever. He even gets to EDIT HIS OWN NARRATIVE. Victor tells his entire story to Walton, and Walton — in recounting Victor’s story — admits that as he took notes he allowed Victor to go back and make changes, to modify things to make sure Victor’s version of the “truth” comes out. There’s one instance where Victor isn’t able to use privilege to get what he wants: when he tries to convince the magistrate or whatever to release Justine by claiming that a monster committed the murder. But even in that situation, Victor BENEFITS from Justine’s death. If she’s released, then the case will be reopened and they might discover that he is responsible for the crime, whether directly or by extension since he claims his monster did it.
Victor is allowed to say in one chapter “I got a bunch of guns and a dog sled,” and in the next chapter, he speaks to villagers who describe the monster as “carrying a lot of guns and riding a dog sled,” with no sense of irony or self-awareness that he’s describing himself. I hesitate to compare Victor to Trump, because Victor is pretty smart/shrewd/worldly, but there’s definitely a “pot constantly calling the kettle a monstrous killer” thing going on. Maybe a better comparison to Victor Frankenstein, is Steve Jobs: a tech genius who was a total hypocrite when it came to patriarchal violence; a man whose motto could easily be “Believe in what I say, not what I do.”
Victor’s narrative is also directly tied, thematically, to the monster itself. Walton writes down Victor’s story, with some inaccuracies. When Victor sees this and starts making corrections, he justifies his changes by saying: “Since you have preserved my narration I would not that a mutilated one go down to posterity.” Just as he sees the narration Walton recorded as “mutilated,” the monster he’s created is a mutilated image of Victor’s own sexuality/gender identity/unconscious. Throughout the story, just as Victor seeks to correct Walton’s narrative, he keeps trying to correct his monster’s actions. The monster IS mutilated, the story IS mutilated, but Victor seeks a flawless, pristine, externally perfect appearance for his story and his identity. It’s 200 pages of “And then I did this terrible thing — I mean, I didn’t do it, the monster did it. I’m a good guy. I swear!”
Walton describing V. Frankenstein: “What a glorious creature must he have been in the days of his prosperity, when he is thus noble and godlike in ruin!” Good lord, Walton would support Louie CK’s comeback.
Lol the way Walton fawns over Victor is exactly like the people who’ve been fawning over Ted Bundy. Some things never change! LOL the day that Walton and Victor (who seem to have become lovers) leave one another, breaking Walton’s heart, is… SEPTEMBER 11th.
Love the part in Frankenstein where Victor goes all OJ like, “I have to catch the real killer!!!”
Woah, never knew Roy Beatty’s speech at the end of Blade Runner is basically identical to the sentiments that Frankenstein’s monster relates in the last 2 pages of the novel. “I shall no longer see the sun or stars or feel the winds play on my cheeks… [W]hen the images which this world affords first opened upon me… I should have wept to die; now it is my only consolation… [W]here can I find consolation but in death?” “But soon, I shall die, and what I now feel be no longer felt.”
Was Luke’s island in Last Jedi inspired by Victor Frankenstein’s accommodations off the coast of Scotland? [Rian Johnson] plz confirm or deny. [Rian Johnson did reply to this tweet with “Ha — wow, that’s cool”]
